So this is an interesting statistic

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Democratic Presidential nominees who never were on a ticket that didn't get a majority of the popular vote

Barack Obama
Samuel Tilden
Franklin Pierce

Wow, just wow.

[eric82oslo]

Democratic Presidential nominees who never were on a ticket that didn't get a majority of the popular vote

Barack Obama
Samuel Tilden
Franklin Pierce

Wow, just wow.

And this is including state senate and national senate races as well? Didn't Obama lose his first state congress race btw to a black incumbent?

[Landslide Lyndon]

Ronald Reagan and Dwight Eisenhower won majorities both times they were on a presidential ticket.

[Clarko95 📚💰📈]

F.D.R. won the majority of the vote in the 4 times he ran. Ulysses Grant and William McKingly won majorities twice.

As for Reagan, he won majorities in 1980 and 1984, but he ran in 68' and 72' and narrowly lost the nomination both times.

FDR was the VP nominee in 1920, and that ticket lost. So he's out.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Love how Tilden's on this. Not a critique, just a mild amusement at the way 1876 worked out for Mr. Tilden.

[Beet]

Isn't Obama also the only president to win reelection with a lower share of the popular vote than his original election? I can't think of anyone else (not including FDR's third and fourth terms) without going back to pre-popular vote days (e.g., James Madison).

[barfbag]

I want to clarify my understanding. We're saying these three candidates never lost an election? I thought Obama lost a race for the Illinois senate in 1998 and did he win the popular vote in the 2008 primaries? By popular vote I mean 50% + 1. Either way, it's not like he ran for much before he decided he should be the most powerful person in the world.

[ElectionsGuy]

Isn't Obama also the only president to win reelection with a lower share of the popular vote than his original election? I can't think of anyone else (not including FDR's third and fourth terms) without going back to pre-popular vote days (e.g., James Madison).

Wilson too, but yes those are the only two.

[jaichind]

Isn't Obama also the only president to win reelection with a lower share of the popular vote than his original election? I can't think of anyone else (not including FDR's third and fourth terms) without going back to pre-popular vote days (e.g., James Madison).

Wilson too, but yes those are the only two.

Wilson's share of the popular vote went up from 1912 to 1916.  His margin of victory might have gone down but his share of popular vote went up.  The only other person I can think of is Andrew Jackson.  His popular vote % went down from 1828 to 1832 even though he won a greater share of the electoral vote from 1828 to 1832. [all this info are on this website given we are on "uselectionatlas.org"]

A better statement is: Obama also the only president to win his first reelection with a lower share of the popular vote AND a lower share of the electoral vote than his original election.  [I used first to exclude FDR's 1940 and 1944 reelections.]

In fact I was so sure about this rule [A President either loses re-election or wins with a greater margin] that I was convinced Obama would lose in 2012 since it was clear he would lose ground in both popular and election vote.  I guess we are in such a super-partisan environment that this rule no longer applies.

[jaichind]

Obama lost the popular vote to Hillary in the 2008 primaries:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Party_presidential_primaries,_2008

There has been debates on this.  The Obama camp would disagree with this.  They will first add the Caucus vote would would reduce the Clinton margin.  Then they would claim that 238K votes for Uncommitted in the early and "illegal" Michigan primary should really be counted for Obama.  Once we take those into account Obama won the popular vote by a tiny margin.